One year later: From moments of triumph to bitter disappointments, Occupy Toronto demonstrators look back on the local movement

The 40-day occupation of Toronto's St. James Park helped create a community, says Brian Batty, a familiar face at the encampment.

By:Niamh ScallanStaff Reporter, Published on Fri Oct 19 2012

Name: Bryan Batty

Age: 24

Role at Occupy Toronto: Media officer

Current occupation: Digital marketing

He was a familiar face at the Occupy Toronto encampment, a bandana-wearing rabble-rouser who spent days and nights at St. James Park trying to push the movement’s agenda into the mainstream.

When eviction loomed, he spearheaded Occupy Toronto’s legal battle to keep the park.

But a year on, reality has caught up with Bryan Batty.

On Oct. 15, as dozens of former occupiers gathered at the park to mark the one-year anniversary of their movement, Batty was otherwise occupied — working at a digital marketing agency in Toronto’s Liberty Village.

“For personal reasons, I had to step back and continue my schooling,” said Batty, 24. “I have to focus on career goals at this very moment.”

A year ago, the Humber College business management student spent hours on end at the park, heading home only every few days to recharge and catch up on homework. As soon as he could, he said, he would return to join the movement’s marches, meetings and brainstorming sessions.

He became known for his work at the media tent, using social media channels to churn out messages of hope and optimism — that the people, together, could force change in the status quo.

“I have always had the feeling that there’s something very wrong and unjust in this world,” said Batty, “and when I saw what was going down on Wall Street, I was very inspired. It was definitely the first time I felt like I could relate with the activists and with the message.”

Of Occupy Toronto: “I always felt like I just belonged there.”

Looking back, Batty (who graduated from Humber College earlier this year) described Occupy Toronto as both a success and a failure. In one sense, he said, the movement helped create a community and generate buzz around global issues often neglected in the public sphere.

But it failed to capture the attention of mainstream audience, Batty said. Many people focused on internal problems at the camp instead of what occupiers were actually trying to do, he said.

“Unfortunately, after all my months of work with a lot of great people, I don’t really feel that we achieved much.”

Name: Mita Hans

Age: 46

Role at Occupy Toronto: Water delivery woman

Current occupation: Group home counsellor

She became known as the water delivery lady, the woman who would arrive at St. James Park most mornings, pick up the empty water jugs and return them later in the day brimming with fresh water.

“I tend to find myself doing things with water,” said Mita Hans, 46, who lives about a 10-minute drive from the park.

A social worker by trade, Hans said her involvement with Occupy Toronto was something she never planned or predicted. As someone concerned about the impact of genetically modified food and corporate farming on public health, she first became interested in the concerns raised by Occupy Wall Street.

“It got me thinking about the whole 99 per cent versus the 1 per cent. . . who are we farming for?”

When word of Occupy Toronto began to spread, Hans decided to join the crowd for the day, “with no intention of having it a long-term thing.”

But, she said, the makeshift community that sprouted at St. James Park last October drew her in. It was the people, she said, and the feeling that she was not only providing Toronto’s occupiers with fresh water, but was part of a movement pushing global issues into mainstream conversation.

A year later, there’s little connecting Hans to the movement but she still looks back on the 40-day occupation with a sense of pride and a belief that Toronto’s occupiers accomplished what they set out to do.

“I think it’s been a brilliant success,” said Hans. “I really do think it has expanded the knowledge base of the general populace. . . especially for the people who weren’t necessarily looking at the bigger picture before.”

Name: Christopher Lambe

Age: 26

Role at Occupy Toronto: “Mood moderator”

Current occupation: Unemployed

From Day One, Christopher Lambe could be heard around St. James Park, extolling the values of a movement he hoped would give power to the “99 per cent.”

Even when protestors were evicted from the park, the 26-year-old and a handful of others pitched their tents outside Queen’s Park, determined to keep Occupy Toronto alive.

So it was only natural that he stood among a handful of other protestors on the one-year anniversary, celebrating what he said was a movement still very much alive.

“We still have (general assemblies) every week . . . we talk about everything from current affairs to personal issues,” said Lambe.

Originally from Brampton, Lambe relocated to Toronto in summer 2011 to help bring the global movement to the area. He found a temporary job at a sandwich shop, but quit as soon as occupiers took the park on Oct. 15.

At the park, Lambe was a magnet for political conversation, constantly surrounded by a handful of others sharing their views on the world.

Of his role at the encampment, he described himself as a mood moderator: “If there was a disturbance, I’d run in with hugs.”

A year later, Lambe is quick to stand up for a movement so often called ineffective. Instead, he described the 40-day occupation as a powerful show of community strength and the ability of the “99 per cent” to be heard.

“We didn’t come in with one demand, but we changed the discussion. People started talking about what they needed to talk about,” he said. “Of course it was a success.”

Name: Bev Leroux

Age: 66

Role at Occupy Toronto: Volunteer, knitter, food supplier

Occupation: Retired administrative assistant

She hardly considers herself a protester, but Bev Leroux felt at home at the sprawling tent city that sprouted last year in St. James Park.

After months spent glued to the television as the Arab Spring unfolded in 2011, the 66-year-old retiree was drawn to the happenings at New York’s Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street had begun to gain momentum.

Leroux dubbed it the “I’ve had enough and I’m not going to take it anymore” movement. By the time it reached Toronto last October, she found herself marching through the streets of downtown Toronto to speak out.

Several days a week, Leroux would drive from her north Toronto home to spend the day with occupiers, bringing in carloads of food, extra blankets and knitted hats and gloves.

On the one-year anniversary, Leroux returned to the park to reflect on a movement that had drawn so much hope and optimism.

Of course, the eviction last November came as a major disappointment, said Leroux, especially to the homeless people who had found a community in the makeshift tent city.

But Leroux refuses to think of the movement as anything but a “magical” and “overwhelmingly positive” experience that captured headlines and focused the world’s attention on inequality.

Though her connection to last year’s movement is minimal, Leroux hopes the messages put forward by the global Occupy movement will survive the test of time.

“The world needs to change so badly.”

Name: Jesse Naiman

Age: 33

Role at Occupy Toronto: Media volunteer

Current occupation: Unemployed computer programmer

He’s “one of the most disillusioned people of the movement,” a dreamer-turned-cynic whose time at St. James Park became tarnished by an overwhelming sense that the movement had done little to influence the mainstream.

For weeks, Jesse Naiman left his wife and child at home to camp out with fellow occupiers. It was something he had to do — to stand up for what he believed was right.

“I was raised to think that the world should be a better place,” said Naiman, 33, of North York. “I wasn’t going to sit back and let other people do all the work.”

At the outset, it was a grand vision: unemployed at the time, he would help voice concerns about the state of the global economy, income inequality and corporate greed.

But soon, support waned — family members questioned his decision to sleep in a park rather than look for work and outside observers, tainted by media reports of drug use, criticized his involvement, he said.

“It was pretty disastrous,” he said.

About halfway through the occupation, Naiman landed a three-month contract with a tech company in Markham so he returned home to sleep and work. On his days off, he said, he would return to the park and support the movement.

But as the days and weeks wore on, his once-grand vision began to blur.

“We (the Occupy Toronto movement) were supposed to be everybody, but a large percentage of the demographic chose to stay home and judge people instead of participate,” said Naiman. “That was detrimental in the end.

“I felt angry more than anything.”

Name: Wilsun Tso

Age: 32

Role at Occupy Toronto: Marshall (security)

Current occupation: Graphic designer

There are those who saw the eviction of St. James Park as the death of the movement, and then there’s Wilsun Tso.

Last week, as protesters worldwide gathered to celebrate the Occupy movement’s first anniversary, a bright-eyed Tso stood among those gathered at St. James Park to mark the date the occupation began, and to celebrate a movement he believes is still very much alive.

“It’s evolving,” said Tso, 32, a Sheridan College graduate.

Early last fall, Tso quit his job at Costco to help organize Toronto’s version of the global Occupy movement. On Oct. 15, as thousands gathered in the streets to celebrate and launch the occupation, Tso immersed himself in the movement.

“It would have been an embarrassment to the world if it didn’t start in Toronto,” said Tso, explaining his decision to help organize the occupation at St. James Park.

Though the anniversary was “tinged with disappointment” as only a few dozen took part, Tso insisted on focusing on the good that came of the 40-day occupation: the city’s activist community, still hurting from the G20, began its healing process and a community of like-minded thinkers came together to share and vocalize their concerns.

“It really made people with various social backgrounds come together,” he said. “We had to live and cope together.”

After occupiers were evicted from the park, Tso landed a job as a graphic designer for a downtown Toronto design agency. Though much of his attention is now devoted to his work, he continues to stay involved with those who came together during last year’s occupation.

“We keep in touch,” he said.

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